Skills Development Fund for Employers

As a Texas employer, you are the focus of the Skills Development Fund. You provide two things — a desire to collaborate with the other partners involved with the project and the commitment to see the project through to completion. If you would like to take advantage of SDF training, please reach out to your local eligible grant applicant or your regional SDF Outreach Team representative.

To be considered for a Skills Development Fund grant, the private business, business consortium or trade union must:

• Partner with an eligible grant applicant, which is a public community or technical college, the Texas Engineering Extension Service, or a private, nonprofit community-based organization in partnership with one of those institutions.
• Be actively involved in the planning and design of the customized training project.
• Pay wages to the employees who successfully complete the training program that are equal to or greater than the prevailing wage for the occupation in the local labor market.
• Disclose any other state or federal grant funds sought or awarded for the proposed training project.
• Sign an agreement with the grant applicant outlining each entity's roles and responsibilities in the training project, including reporting requirements related to trainee participation.
• Provide equal employment opportunity documentation as well as information on the occupations for training, employment benefits, wages and social security numbers for trainees.
• Use WorkinTexas.com to post openings for new workers trained under the project.

Grants for a single business may be limited to $500,000. Tuition, curriculum development, instructor fees and training materials can be included, however, trainee wages, drug testing and certain travel cost and equipment purchases cannot be covered. Contract typically are for 12 months.

During fiscal year 2021, TWC:

• Awarded 43 Skills Development Fund grants totaling $13,831,827
• Served 44 Texas businesses
• Supported the creation of 4,925 new jobs
• Upgraded the skills 8,397 workers in existing jobs

In addition to identifying your training needs and the number of employees to be trained, you must provide information about your business. The specific items required from participating employers include identifying information for your business, wage ranges of each job title to be trained, and other individual identification information that may be required by the eligible grant applicant or training provider. Your grant applicant or SDF Outreach Team regional representative can help you with this information when you begin the application process.